


Slumber

by CaptnSlash



Category: Power Rangers Dino Charge
Genre: Crushes, Kendall Morgan is amazing, M/M, Riley saves the day, Sleeping Beauty-esque
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 18:55:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5638156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptnSlash/pseuds/CaptnSlash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chase is rendered unconscious after getting ambushed by a monster, and Riley and the team try to figure out how to wake him up. The monster mentions something about a kiss from Chase's true love, and Riley is oblivious to the fact that he and Chase are both harboring crushes for each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I started thinking about Sleeping Beauty and Chiley at the same time. This is the result.

Riley couldn't see what happened from his vantage point, but he got to Chase's side just as he fell to his knees. Riley gave him a quick look over from head to toe and then put a hand on his shoulder to let him know that he wasn't alone. Something in his eyes was wrong, like the light that had been there only moments before was being dimmed. There were no physical injuries on his body, but Riley could see that something was wrong.

"Chase, I'm right here. Stay with me."

Riley glanced back and the monster had vanished. He didn't understand why the bad guys would retreat after gaining the upper hand, but he was glad they did.

"Riley? Is that you?" Chase asked.

"It's me. What happened?"

"The monster hit me with an energy blast. I don't feel right."

"Don't worry. I'll get you back to the base and..."

Chase collapsed on the grass. Riley placed his first two fingers on Chase's neck to take his pulse, and it was there, but faint. He called for help.

 

* * *

 

Everyone was in the base, scattered around while Kendall ran a bunch of different tests. Riley explained what happened as well as he could, and he conveyed Chase's account since he wasn't able to provide it at the moment. He was still unconscious and Riley was afraid he wasn't going to be okay.

"This wasn't your fault, Riley," Tyler said.

"I should have gotten to him sooner. Maybe I could have stopped it or pushed him out of the way."

"You did everything you could. Chase wouldn't want you to beat yourself up over what happened," Shelby said.

Riley knew that she was right, they both were, but he couldn't let himself off the hook so easily. Koda walked over and gave him a hug. "All will be okay."

"Thanks, Koda."

They all walked over to Kendall when she put down her tablet. It was a sign that she had done all of the scans that she could think of. "How is he?" Ivan inquired.

"He's stable. It's as if his body has gone into some form of hibernation. His body temperature has lowered and all cerebral function has been suspended. It's like he's in a dreamless sleep. I can only monitor him and keep him comfortable."

"We've got to destroy the monster. Maybe getting rid of him will set Chase free."

"I hope that is the case. I've tried a couple of different stimulants and none of them were effective. I can't wake him."

Riley hated to see Chase so vulnerable like that, and he made him a silent promise to defeat the monster so that he could get back on his skateboard as soon as possible. "Is he okay like this? How long can he stay this way?"

Kendall looked solemn. "This condition isn't ideal. I believe the black energem is doing what it can to protect him, but it's only capable of so much. This monster's power seems to render his enemies comatose in the short term, which eventually leads to organ failure and brain damage."

Shelby began to cry. She turned to Tyler's arms for comfort and he held her as the mood in the base continued to decrease. Riley wished he could find comfort in someone's arms, but even if it was available to him, he wouldn't have been able to take it. His guilt was eating at him and he wasn't going to rest until he helped his friend.

He began to think about the monster in hiding and whether or not they really needed to wait for him to strike again. "The monster isn't attacking anyone at the moment. Maybe it's looking for an opportunity to attack?"

Kendall turned to him. "What are you thinking, Riley?"

"It ambushed Chase in the park while he was waiting for me. I think I should offer myself up as bait to draw him out."

"That sounds pretty dangerous. I'm not certain Chase would want you to put yourself in such danger for him," Ivan said.

"It's our best option and we can't afford to waste time. I'll be safer if we do this on our terms, and all of you will be close by to provide backup when he shows up."

Kendall looked at Chase and then turned back to Riley. "This is your choice. I know you're aware of the dangers, so I will leave the decision in your hands."

Riley was so thankful that he felt like he could have hugged her. Instead, he focused on developing the perfect plan.


	2. Chapter 2

Riley walked alone in the park, stopping at the exact spot where the monster had ambushed Chase. The memory of seeing Chase so helpless sent a chill up his spine. He turned and began to head back to the museum.

It didn't take long for the monster to show up. He fired the blast from his eyes and Riley just managed to dodge it by diving behind a tree. He emerged and glared at the monster. "I'll give you one chance to release my friend."

The monster laughed and placed his hands on his hips. "It's not my choice and that brings me such glee! Only a kiss from his true love can set him free!"

Riley didn't waste a second. He morphed into his uniform and used his weapons to delay the monster. Things got easier once the other Power Rangers arrived, and their zords took care of Slumber to ensure that he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone else.

They returned to the base and checked to see if there was any improvement, but Chase was still unconscious. Kendall put up with the crowd for a couple of hours but asked everyone to leave so that she could concentrate on Chase. Only Riley stayed behind with her.

"I've been trying to work out a way to combine the energies of the energems, but none of my permutations have been stable enough to help him."

"It's okay. You've done all you can, Miss Morgan."

"I wish that weren't the case. Even Keeper is unsure of what could help him; all of his knowledge isn't any use to us in this situation."

"I asked Slumber to release him and he told me that only a kiss from his true love could free him."

"That sounds like fantasy rather than reality, but I'd be willing to try anything at this point."

"How would we even find his true love? She could be back in New Zealand or anywhere between there and here."

Kendall tapped her lips as she thought about it. "I might be able to tie his energem into the Dino Cupid charger, and feed that into the scanning matrix to perform a geographical search. It's a long shot, I admit, but at least it's something I can do to try to help."

She started to leave but turned back to Riley. "Have a little faith, Riley. Chase is one of the strongest people I've met and he won't give up without a fight."

Riley gave her a weak smile and he watched her leave the room to go in search of the items she needed to put her theory to the test. He found himself walking to Chase's side even though he was powerless to help him.

"I'm so sorry I let you down and didn't protect you. I would have gotten there sooner if I had been faster. I never should have skipped so many training days to hang out with you."

He hoped that Chase could hear him. He felt a little foolish talking to his friend when he couldn't answer him back, but he found it therapeutic and knew he should continue. "I keep seeing your sister's face and what it would look like if I had to call and tell her and your mom that something happened to you. Please don't make me have to make that call, Hotshot."

He found himself staring at Chase's lips. He had caught himself wondering what it would be like to kiss them a few times over the last few weeks, but he wasn't going to take advantage of Chase's weakened position to give in to a moment of lust. Slumber's words about a kiss from Chase's true love replayed in his head.

"This would be a whole lot easier if you weren't dating a different girl every week. I mean, you're having fun and that's great and all, but a steady girlfriend could come in handy right about now."

He imagined how Chase would have smiled if he had told him that before the accident. "You'd probably tell me that you're too young to be that serious about someone. I guess that's true. Maybe I'm just thinking it would be easier to be jealous over one serious girlfriend rather than a string of girls that don't mean all that much to you."

He laughed. "Actually, you having a steady girlfriend would probably be harder for me. Don't get me wrong, it isn't like I'm madly in love with you and pining for your attention. I can tell that the feelings we have for each other are different and that's okay. You're a great friend."

He gave himself permission to place his hand over Chase's. He hoped it provided his friend some comfort, but he suspected it was a little more selfish than that. He would never get to kiss those lips, so touching his hand was as close as he would ever allow himself to give in to his crush. "I did kind of like April from a couple of weeks ago. She kept up with you pretty good when it came to some of your jokes and sarcasm, but she moved away and you weren't all that upset by it, so clearly she wouldn't help you right now even if I could track her down."

He used his thumb to make small circles on the top of Chase's hand.

"I always thought we'd have a conversation about this crush of mine. I can tell that you figured it out, but you never made me feel weird for liking you the way I do. Thanks for that."

He looked up at Chase's face and felt his own heart start to ache for what could have been. Tears started to form in his eyes as the realization set in that there was nothing they could do to save him, but he held them back and kept the tears from falling. "You know how there's the theory that there are an infinite number of parallel universes, like millions of millions of planes of reality just like ours with only minute differences? I'm a scientist and I don't really believe in all of that since there's no way to prove they exist, but right now I really wish I could suspend my disbelief and believe.

Some of those places would have us never meeting, or us meeting but not being friends. In some realities we'd even be mortal enemies - can you imagine that? In a lot of those realities you would be healthy and happy and I would be too. In others, we'd be healthy, happy, and best friends. And in one of those realities, it would even be possible for us to be healthy, happy, in love with each other, and best friends."

That thought made him smile, despite the bleakness of the current situation. "Well, enough about all that, Hotshot. You just focus on saving your strength and getting yourself through this. If anyone can figure this out, it's Kendall."

"Please call me Miss...forget it."

Riley turned and his eyes were wide. He hadn't heard her return or start working, but by the appearance of new items on the counter where she was standing, she had been there working for a while. "How long have you been there?" He asked.

"I wasn't gone very long. I thought you knew I came back."

He shook his head and she looked into his eyes from across the room. "I'm sorry, Riley. I didn't mean to intrude or hear things that weren't for my ears. I guess I was just so focused that..."

She had stopped talking. Riley let go of Chase's hand and he took a step towards her. "Miss Morgan?"

"I was just thinking about what you said Slumber told you, as well as your explanation of multiple realities."

"I don't understand how the two are related."

"Surely it couldn't be that simple."

"What couldn't?"

"He said that Chase had to be kissed by his true love."

Riley sighed. He caught up to her train of thought and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "No, that wouldn't work. Even if there are other realities and Chase and I are together in one of them, that wouldn't affect things in this reality."

Her optimism slipped away. "You're right. I think I'm just grasping at straws at this point. I can leave if you'd like more time with him."

"Thanks, but I've said everything I need to say."

She started to go back to work only to stop again. She turned to Riley and looked at him like she could see right through him. "Kiss him anyway."

"Huh?"

"You heard me, Riley. You care deeply for him and he would be okay with it under the circumstances."

He was pretty sure that Chase would feel differently about that. He had never once seemed interested in kissing a guy and Riley wasn't going to be the type of person to force it on him. "I'm not going to do that to him. He's my friend."

She nodded slowly as another idea popped into her head. "Do you know what a hongi is?"

"No. Should I?"

"It's a traditional greeting between the Māori. It involves touching the forehead and tips of the nose. There is a lot of information available about the cultural significance, and it has even been weaved in to some of the creation mythology. Suffice it to say, the hongi is a greeting between two people, and I think it would be considered a kiss in Chase's mind without you having to feel like you're forcing something on him."

Riley scratched the back of his neck. "Chase has never mentioned that to me. Are you sure it wouldn't offend him?"

She nodded almost immediately. "It's worth a try, and if nothing else it shows your care for him and his culture. I'll leave for a few minutes and come back."

He watched her head out again and he turned back to Chase. He approached his friend slowly and leaned over him. "Don't hate me for this, Hotshot. Between you and me, just pretend I'm your true love for the next few minutes, just long enough for this thing to work so that you will wake you up again. Then things can go back to normal."

He closed the space between their heads and leaned in to complete the hongi. Riley closed his eyes and tried to will Chase awake. He almost screamed out of shock when Chase's lips smashed up against his own. It was short and chaste because Riley backed away, a hand on his heart like he was trying to keep it from exploding out of his chest.

"It worked!"

Chase smiled and looked up at him. "Yeah, but between you and me, I'm more of a fan of the kissing that involves lips touching lips."

Riley laughed. He bent down and hugged Chase before the black ranger began pleading for air. Riley released him and helped him sit up. A new thought ran through his mind and his brain worked overtime to try to process and understand it.

"Wait, why did you kiss me? The hongi had already worked."

Chase smiled. "I heard everything you said to me, Baby Raptor. You're not the only one with a crush on his friend."

"You mean..."

Chase nodded. "Who needs parallel realities when everything you want to happen happens in the reality you're already in?"

Riley laughed. "Were you just speaking English?"

Chase shrugged as he pulled Riley close. "Close enough, I think."

Riley pressed his forehead against Chase's and allowed himself to enjoy Chase's company for five minutes before he started making calls to share the good news.

The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all he wrote, folks. I hope you liked it.


End file.
